The blog will offer purely objective and candid analyses for a better understanding of the events that keep happening and that provide dynamism and direction to the flow of the history and development of the human societies. Being a forum, the comments and opinions from readers whether for or against the views expressed in it, are gratefully welcome. Suggestions for improving the blog are welcome.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

In Karachi, during the past few months, the factories
are being targeted by arsonists and criminal gangs. Who are these arsonists?
The government does not know, the law enforcement agencies are not aware and the
people cannot find out where they come from. Even if the people know them, they
cannot disclose their identities for fear of terrible revenge. This largest and
port city is being economically choked by mafias that are enemy agents,
racketeers, religious dissidents and robbers abetted and sheltered by power politicians,
the feudal lords, the bureaucrats or the self proclaimed barons.

This trend of attacking and burning the industrial
units is fraught with dreadful economic backlash both for Karachi and Pakistan.
If the factories and mills are closed down or gutted by the avengers, then the
people would lose jobs and there would be more poverty. The exports would
suffer too.

The fleecing and blackmailing of the
industrialists and mill owners is easy and more lucrative than robbing the
shopkeepers and the common traders. What one could get from several retailers
could be obtained several times more from one factory owner. If the factory owners
refuse to oblige or delay in responding to the dictate of the pitiless ruffians,
their factories are torched resulting in death of workers. We have seen many
factories in the recent past gutted by the ruthless blackmailers. There burning
was due to the deliberate foul play and not because of the other causes.

In September this year more than 300 people
perished in two devastating factory fires in Pakistan. At least 280 people died
at a garment factory in Karachi; in a horrendous blaze. Close on the heels
another fire broke out at a shoe factory in Lahore resulting in the death of 21
workers. This Friday (October 26) a tissue paper manufacturing chemical factory
in Karachi’s Shershah area was burnt.

The
lives of residents in Karachi have remained unsafe for many years now. Even
today 7 citizens of this country lost their lives. These killing sprees carried
out by power gangs, extortionists, outlaws and crime cartels have become a part
of the daily life in Karachi. Those who wake up in the morning and set out for
their work places would not be sure if they would return alive to join their
families.

Death and destruction stalk the streets of the
Karachi. The brazen and unrelenting extortion by multiple groups through
telephone calls and paper slips is now a familiar pattern to rob people. If the
demands of the thugs are not met, they kill or kidnap their targets. The
ordinary people as well as the small and big businessmen in Karachi are at the
mercy of the blood hounds and savage predators to play with their lives, honor
and peaceful living of the citizens. Traveling has become hazardous in that
city.

The city of Karachi remains under a pal of
fear, harassment, intimidation and threats round the clock from rampaging and trigger
free murderous gangs. At the end of the day, the rescue and relief teams start
picking the dead bodies or the injured in full media glare. It is a ghastly
recurring spectacle witnessed by army top brass, the ministers both provincial
and federal, the president, the prime minister, the parliamentarians, the
members of bureaucracy, and the intelligence services. Yet no one moves or seems
to be serious to curb and contain this mayhem.

The bazaars, the shopping centers and the business
markets are assailed and controlled by the merciless thugs whose brutality
cannot be described in words. The decapitated, bullet ridden and tortured
bodies of people are frequently found in the city. The people are kidnapped,
the women raped and houses broken in. The properties are forcibly occupied and
no power on earth can get those vacated without payment of the demanded price.
The children and adults alike are kidnapped for hefty ransoms.

Police force being insufficient and ill-trained
has utterly failed to cope with the Himalayan challenge of restoring order and
normal life in Karachi. The members of police force also join the criminals in
loot and robberies. They provide shelter to the criminals and do not arrest
them even if they know them. In many crimes the policemen were discovered to be
the accomplices of dacoits.

The political parties are mum and silent, including
the powerful MQM and the ruling PPP. The religious doyen of Karachi Jamaat-i-Islami, the stray social factions, the peace makers all are either helpless or
deliberately ignore this frightening state of affairs. The leaders who profess
to redeem the people of Pakistan and turn this country into abode of peace and
unit forget their claims and pledges when they step into power. Power grabbing
has become rigmarole between the political parties.

The
authorities are feigning to be deaf, dumb and unconcerned on these hair-raising
happenings that carry ominous foreboding for the economic development of
Pakistan already reeling under a continuous crisis of stability and social
peace. The whole country presents the doomsday scenario with life getting
degraded by myriad socio-economic problems and by dearth and obsolete civic amenities.
There is endemic and acute shortage of potable water, the persistent curse of load
shedding, and the archaic and insufficient road network. The education, health,
public transport and other essential services are miserable and horrifically
flawed.

The
politicians both out and in power are crooks, urchins and a sleazy lot with shameless
countenances. They are protected by bullet proof SUVs, hordes of security staff
and travel with a retina of parasites and stooges. They travel on the roads
like pharaohs of Egypt or emperors of Rome, and the richest rulers of a poor
and directionless nation.

They
have no shame, no honor, nor self-dignity. In fact they are caricatures as if
to ridicule the poor and helpless countrymen with their display of galore,
extravaganza and sparking style of life. Their glamorous life style stands in sharp
and woeful contrast to the unsafe, listless and harassed live of their
countrymen whose predominant majority is impoverished. The people find it hard to
feed them and their children, seek justice or relief from police stations, the
courts or from the government departments ridden by bribe and inefficiency.

I am at
my wit’s end. May God almighty intervene and save this otherwise a magnificent,
awesome and amazingly beautiful country. Ameen!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

President Obama and
the Republican contender Mitt Romney spent pretty good time in sparring on Iran
and Israel and the way America should deal with these two mutually adversarial countries.
The topic of the debate was the Foreign Policy and as a matter of fact it was
the most crucial theme as compared to those of two earlier debates. The
entire tone, tenor and emphasis of both the debtors was to prove emphatically
that he was the best and most loyal friend of Israel and the staunchest and
inveterate foe of Iran.

Mitt Romney has been
inclined to, as unequivocally expressed by him in the October 22 debate,
bludgeon Iran not only economically but militarily. He stressed that such a
decision was imperative to reduce Iran to a stage of such debility that it
remains neither as a potent threat to Israel nor to Saudi Arabia: a submissive
surrogate of the United States and also of the west. The conflict of Iran with
Israel is primarily riveted on Iran’s nuclear program that is not entirely
known to the world at large.

Israel feels that Iran’s
nuclear weapons that she might be able to manufacture in due course will be a
dire threat to the security of Israel. Iran might be under the perception that
her security could be ensured and absolutely guaranteed with the possession of
a nuclear weapon. But before that happens, Iran has to wade through a sea of
hostilities and impediments. The IAEC members, the United States and
Israel and even some of the Sunni conservative regimes in the Middle East,
would never tolerate or ignore or compromise on an Iran possessing a nuclear
capability, notwithstanding the Iranian claim that it was for the energy
generation.

President Obama vociferously
claimed during the debate that he was the one president who has brought Iran
under unprecedented, stringent multiple sanctions reducing her to a nuclear
pariah state. He is right in his assertion. The fallout of those rigorous and
oppressive sanctions is the devaluation of Iranian currency to an abysmal all
time low level. Iran cannot trade or bargain and transact money to and fro the
rest of the world within the international system of monetary exchange system.

It is in the backdrop of
these back-breaking sanctions, acute financial hardships, drastic drop in
oil sale and sharp devaluation of Iranian currency that Iran’s chief pontiff
and supreme leader Ali Khameini has offered bilateral dialogue with the
United States on nuclear issue.

While giving unconditional
and unequivocal support to the most America’s trusted ally Israel, the president
Obama looked rather discreet. Yet the pro-Israel partisan policy is not
followed exclusively by president Obama, it is an article of faith also with
all the regimes whether Republican or Democratic. His rival however, who
recently toured Israel was unabashed in expressing his unstinting and
partisan loyalty to the state of Israel and go to any length for her
protection.

President Obama’s approach
towards such thorny issues as dealing with Syrian civil war and Iran’s
controversial nuclear issue is tagged with winning the international support
for joint and decisive action to achieve the projected results. However, his
opponent during the debate imprudently brushed aside the intentional consensus
and vouched a hard hitting military response that might trap the United States
in another war.

A discerning watcher of the
debate would get an eerie feeling as if Mitt Romney was not adequately aware of
the international affairs and the fast paced developments that burst out every
day specifically in the tumultuous Middle East. On the question of nexus
between Iran and Syria, he fumbled by pointing out that Syria provides sea
route to Iran. The reality is that Iran does not have direct borders with
Syria. It was an erroneous claim that was not noted by most of the viewers
because they did not know the actual fact. The fact is that Iran has its own
independent access to the Persian Gulf that it can block anytime either in
peace or in war time.

The American policy
with regard to the Middle East is unilaterally poised in favor of Israel to
keep that tiny state as a dominant military power in the midst of religiously
and geographically hostile countries. The hostility between the Muslim Arab
states and Israel stems out of Israel’s refusal to recognize the creation of an
independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians deserve such a state for two
reasons.

One: that the land belonged
to the Palestinians for centuries before it was turned into an Israeli state.
Secondly the United Nations’ Resolution number 181(II) by which the State of
Israel came into being also calls for the creation of a parallel Palestinian
state. One part of that resolution has been implemented and strictly guarded
while the other relating to the Palestinians is yet to see the light of the
day.

So while exuding their
overflowing fervor and abiding commitment to protect Israel the international
arbiters and mediators must take into consideration the humanitarian dimension
of this chronic issue. That gory dimension is that as a result of denial of a
Palestinian state a whole nation is living as refugees on their own territory
and is also isolated as Diasporas.

Secondly, there is always a
cacophonous refrain on Iran’s or North Korean nuclear potential yet there has
seldom been even a passing reference about the nuclear arsenal of Israel. Her
stockpile of nuclear weapons too hangs over the Middle East like "sword of
Damocles".

Israel can launch
preemptive strikes on hostile countries in the region in order to get rid of
them. Since other states are not permitted to fabricate the atomic weapons the
dice is clearly and heavily cast in favor of Israel. The best and lasting
way-out of this impasse is that Israel should mend fences with the regional
partners because it is not only physically small but also surrounded by other
states both friendly and hostile. Use or threat to use weapons of mass
destruction is not the answer for the security of Israel.

So to look non-partisan
morally justified and in conformity with the established international
obligations, some benefit of rights should also be given to the states braced
against Israel. Otherwise America’s unswerving commitment to the security and
safety of Israel looks farcical, artificially contrived, morally hollow and
legally untenable.

The international relations
cannot sustain on long terms basis if these are biased or driven by parochial
or petty considerations. Somehow America and western countries should prevail
on Israel to agree to the state of Palestine and amicably resolve the status of
Jerusalem and halt new settlements on the Palestinians lands. Thereafter, there
would be lasting peace and progress in the Middle East bedeviled by decades of
deadly wars and internecine conflicts. Israel’s mentors must discharge this
historic role.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

There
was a widespread skepticism as to how president Obama would perform in the
second presidential debate that took place on October 16. This skepticism or pessimism was an offshoot
or spillover from the relatively poor or lackluster display of president Obama
in the first debate that came off on October 3.

President
Obama rebounded in October 16 debate with amazing vitality.He maintained his
dominance with exceptional poise and confidence throughout the debate. His
rebuttal and repudiation of opponent’s frivolous argumentation were forceful
and convincing. There was an incessant flow of articulation and oration that
made the debate not only lively but intellectually meaningful.

From
energy to immigration, education to Medicare, taxation to job creation, foreign
affairs to energy, president Obama demonstrated that not only was he well-informed
and truthful but that his policies have been on the right track during the past
four years of his presidency. He effectively debunked Romney for his double standards
on taxation, abortion and coal issue.

He remained
focused on the questions and did not retaliate when pressed impetuously by Mr.
Romney on certain issues. He was sober and logical in presenting his views and
perceptions without any traces of bragging, conceit or arrogance.

The demeanor
of Romney was as aggressive and raucous as in the first debate, yet this time
he was disarmed by a rival who was phenomenally assertive as compared to his
lackluster and docile performance in the first debate.

Romney
tried to nail Obama by coming into direct confrontational posture with him with
judgmental incrimination; the later dismissed him by asking him to continue
his answers to the questions. For instance Romney’s accusation that he took two
weeks to declare attack on American diplomatic mission in Ben Ghazi as terror
act, Mr. Obama hammered him for not only being ill-informed but also
politicizing that issue.

However
Romney was caught into his own snare because he was factually wrong as even the
moderator tried to remind him that the president declared that incident as a terrorist
attack the next day in Rose Garden.

The
first debate went in favor of Mitt Romney while the October 16 was a thumping victory
by the incumbent president who is running for the second four years’ term.

In
the second debate, against a pre-determined list of 16 questions, only 11 could
be asked due to paucity of time. President Obama answered five while Mitt Romney
answered six question posed by the randomly selected 15 undecided voters. Now both the candidates are poised for the third
and the last debate scheduled
for October 22,2012at the World Performing Arts Center,Lynn University,Boca Raton, Florida. It would be
focused on the crucial topic of the American foreign policy.

This subject is much wider than domestic issues. It would certainly
demand of the debaters to be fully conversant
and abreast of the American external affairs that determine her relations with
the outside world and that in fact propel America’s image as a dominant world power.

One
can, in anticipation, conjecture that Mitt Romney would try to outbid president
Obama on China, on the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. For Romney Israel
is a holy cow and his partisan inclination towards Israel vis- a- vis Palestinians
is as clear as daylight. His argument would be the same about China that he proffered
in the second debate.

But
rationally it would be an utter folly for any American regime to knock-out
China in bilateral trade or political relationship. Any president, whosoever will
have to tread a very cautious path while taking steps that could push China and
trigger her hostile response.

On the
Middle East, the United States cannot put all her eggs in the Israel basket. It
is during Obama’s presidency that Iran has been subjected to toughest sanctions
debilitating her economy to a great extent. Incidentally, it is during the Obama’s
presidency the Arab spring swept across the Islamic authoritarian regimes.
Obama has been irreconcilably very hard on Syrian regime.

Obama
has already recalled American troops from Iraq and would be doing the same in
case of Afghanistan. As such he has proven himself to be a pacifist. He plans
to divert the saved money on social projects and for the welfare of the people
within America. If elected, Romney, in line with the Republican mindset of bellicosity
might start a war against Iran which America can hardly afford after two devastating
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is apparent
and self-evident that president Obama speaks for the middle class and downtrodden
sections of the American society. Mitt Romney glaringly stands for safeguarding
the interests of the affluent classes and special interest groups. In matter of
taxation, Romney may exempt the rich classes and even millionaires, billionaires
and robber barons from the high taxes that he wants to levy on lower classes.
That might be a stumbling block in his way to get popular vote in a big way.

The
immigrants mostly Latinos are hopeful of getting a legitimate stay in America because
of Obama’s initiated immigration reforms. He can expect favorable votes from
women, veterans and the African Americans. All these sections form the
majority. It is hoped that he would replay his exuberant performance and still
be vibrant and on the offensive in order to outflank and keep his opponent at
bay.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Pakistan
could be devoured by the merciless, ignorant and myopic religious networks, if
their proliferation is not checked well in time and on war footing level.
Pakistan indeed was created as an Islamic state and for the social, political
and economic independence of the Muslims of the Sub-continent. The founders of
Pakistan ought not to be blamed or berated for creating an independent homeland
for the Muslims of India. Their vision to project Muslims as a separate nation was
supported by the vast majority of the Muslims of India.

But what
went wrong was the hijacking of this newly founded country by rulers,
politicians and bureaucrats who did not possess the same level of commitment,
integrity and passion as the founders and vanguards of independence were
blessed with. Over a period of several decades Pakistan that was destined to be
democratic, liberal, economically vibrant, socially modern and civilly
advanced, has been turned into a heap of garbage, trampled with abject poverty,
territorially truncated and politically a scarecrow.

It has
remained dominated by the military adventurers owing to rampant and incessant
political anarchy let loose by the incompetent, self serving,
abject and characterless leaders. Even during those stints when the
political leadership was at the helm, the country suffered, in matters
of good governance, nurturing of democratic culture, establishment
and consolidation of the nation building institutions, crafting of a civil
society, bringing about cohesion among the ethnically divided regions and
building it up as a stable country.

Yet the
most devastating blow to Pakistan was the compromise of the political parties
with the religious zealots to win their support for holding on to power. With
the time passage, the religious outfits both in politics and out kept gaining
clout, influence and authority. They became imperious and overbearing to such
an extent that they succeeded in injecting such amendments in the constitution
of Pakistan that pushed the country towards a theocratic state.

A county
that was envisioned by the freedom fighters to be enlightened, democratic and a
blend of both Islam and secularism drifted towards a course of medievalism,
obscurantism and fundamentalism. The divergent religious sects aided by their
cohorts in the political arena embarked upon a sectarian war of vendetta on
each other as has been rife in the Middle East for ages. It continues unabated
gaining more and more ferocity and rapidity as the time passes.

The
latest version of religious extremism laced with militancy is the cult of
Taliban. This conglomeration is neither part nor parcel of a political culture,
nor bound by any territorial limitations, nor amenable to any law nor
answerable to any government. They were given birth by the inept and
shortsighted politicians and are now poised to swallow Pakistan.

We have
seen their transcript of Islam and the fiendish manner they are determined to
splash its sway across Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their model of Islam is
drastically at variance with the format of Islam that is believed and has been
practiced by the Muslims around the world all these centuries, notwithstanding
the sectarian discords between the dominant sects.

These
ignorant and myopic Muslim fanatics impose their model through brutalization
and violent machinations. Killing someone even for not growing beard to a
prescribed size or not wearing turban or using television, videos and watching
movies is an unpardonable sin to be punished with death or rigorous
incarceration. They are not afraid of death for the sake of advancing their
weird creed and pattern of Islam that was never in vogue even in the worst of
times and during the rigid theocratic eras.

A few years
back, they were close to capturing Islamabad. Later they were successful in
proclaiming their religious regime in Swat valley and adjoining areas of Malakand and
Mardan where the people mostly are conservative. Their incursions were joined
by other religious groups and militants and even political parties that wanted
to convert Pakistan into a theocratic land. The lifestyle and political set up
they want to enforce would isolate Pakistan with the rest of world
as an island of religious bigotry, ignorance, hair-raising punishments,
persecutions and rigorously regimented codes.

Their
religious fiat would make robots of humans totally riveted to mosques and busy
in performing rituals. Their edicts and injunctions would run
counter to the established obligations, beliefs and teachings of Islam as
enshrined in the holy book Quran and on which the Muslim scholars of
all denominations have consensus. Even the enlightened and educated Muslims
counseling moderation and middle way would not be spared by this freakish lot
bereft of pristine Islam.

This is
the most gubernatorial challenge, stupendous menace and impending tragedy to
the survival of Pakistan as a liberal, democratic, enlightened and civil state.
This would also be a travesty and perfidious distortion in the inviolable
Islamic theology that is essentially rational, divine, tolerant, moderate, and
without coercion or compulsion.

If these
hard core Islamic freaks do not spare a teen age girl for advocating education
for the girls how come they would tolerate more serious issues of our daily
life: the way we eat, dress up, read and peruse legitimate venues of happiness.
Just in case they take-over Pakistan, they would close all the female
educational institutions, segregate males and females and put veils on the
faces of women.

That
would be the starting point towards turning Pakistan into a place where only
beards and ignorance would grow: not leaning, education, research, innovation. In
such a society liberty to use modern gadgets or even wearing western apparel
would be banned. This is a sketchy portrait. The reality would be much worse
and bleak. In that stifling situation there would be a civil war if the society
and army reacts. It is better to nip this monstrosity and stem this diabolic
tide presently before it is too late.

This
onslaught by Taliban and other conservative forces cannot be dismantled by NATO
or the armed forces of Pakistan alone. This threat can be effectively deflated
and countered by a civil society. “Let a hundred flowers bloom”. The people
have to be pulled out of the quagmires of illiteracy and ignorance and their
livelihood and safely ensured. The courts, the police stations, the hospitals,
the airlines, the railways, local governments and all state departments inter-alia
should operate to give dignity of life to the people.

The public
awareness has to be elevated through education and enlightened media. Life,
liberty and pursuit of happiness (American Declaration of Independence) must be
guaranteed. People should be liberated from the superstition, from the bondage
of the abominable and parasitic institutions such as feudalism; shamanism false
mystics, shrine runners (pirs), narrow religious cults and sects. A common code
of Islamic faith or religious freedom should be evolved. It is imperative to
separate church from state affairs.

This litany
is not exhaustive. However it gives a rudimentary idea how should the landscape
of Pakistan look like. The religious education should be imparted as part of
the normal curricula in state run or recognized institutions or in mosques and
not in privately run seminaries. The people with a hope in future, laced with
the knowledge and feelings of being honorable and equal citizens, would resist and
cast away reactionary forces.

As such they
would act as a formidable bulwark against any movement or mission that converts
Pakistan into a closed theocracy or turn them into religious robots as the
Taliban or the fanatic religious entities within Pakistan want to do.

Friday, October 12, 2012

My power of articulation has gone numb
and I feel dumbfounded as if I am incapable of adequately venting the deep
anguish and unrelenting agony that is nagging me from within. I am
irrepressibly grieved about that remarkable, iconic girl Malala Yousafzai from the enchanting
valley of Swat over-lorded some few years back by the savage pedigree of Muslims
branding themselves as Taliban. Of late
I saw her lying motionless on a stretcher, wrapped in hospital attire and bandaged
from top to bottom. Her face is still shining like a freshly blooming rose in
the enlivening spring morning.

I had seen her several times
before, vehemently pleading for the most coveted cause of literacy and education
for the young girls of her mountain-wrapped region. She was simply advocating the message of the
prophet of Islam to seek knowledge even if one has to go as far as China. And those
barbarians who claim also to be Muslims, brutally shot her because she was proving
to be a strong, outspoken and undaunted advocate of education and learning.

She is silent on stretcher ensconced
by the grim faced medicos and para-medic staff who look at her still tiny frame
with minds assailed by torturous and horrid fears whether she would survive or
not. The whole world is one in offering prayers for that angel that was the
lone yet unflinching and intrepid voice for enlightenment and dissemination of knowledge,
literacy and education for the girls from the far flung and remote villages of
Swat.

She was spirited, articulate, fearless
resolute in her noble mission and was vibrantly professing and spreading her
message in the face of those savages
that had terrorized the whole valley. In the short takeover of the Taliban under
their commanders Mualana Fazlullah and Sufi Muhammad, this ferocious
segment of antiquated humanity unleashed a reign of terror and manslaughter on
the local population. They would chop the limbs and heads of the inhabitants
and display them on trees or lamp posts to tame others.

They had perpetrated similar inhuman
atrocities and harrowing barbarism in Afghanistan. As a result of their extreme
savagery the whole nation was transported into dark ages. In the dark ages (500
AD -1500 AD) religious vendettas, persecutions and inquisitions were executed by
the catholic papacy against the Protestants and other dissenters. So there is
not even a thin line existing between the ignorant and merciless Taliban and
their cohorts Muslim extremists on one side and those Christian executioners of
yester-years on the other who brooked no compassion or tolerance for the religious
dissensions.

These gun totting predators forgot
that the first lesson imparted by the lord of this world Allah to his most
chosen messenger and Apostle Muhammad was to read.If there were some sentiments of support and
sympathy for this callous and beastly lot of humans among the Muslim religious
ranks, then these must be washed off because of their odious and dastardly attempt
on the life of an innocent young girl who was not match to the ferocity of the Taliban.
She did not fight with weapon or remote bombs but with pen and paper. She
wanted schools where the children could receive education.

What kind of religion and Islamic virtues
and teachings these moron believers in the distorted version and vision of
Islam want to enforce in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world? They are defaming
and denigrating the sublimity of Islam that till eternity is the only righteous
path for the salvation of humanity and for earning the pleasure of God. If prophet
had the infinite capacity and tolerance to forgive his tormentors then these boorish
followers of his are doing just the opposite to his divine message, sublime creed,
immaculate character and noble conduct.

I would rather keep myself away from
the political debate as to whose war Pakistan is fighting and that Taliban are
fighting against the enemies of Islam. My question is for which brand of Islam?
My point is with their bloodletting, hair-raising
tortures, bomb blasts, killing their fellow Muslim believers, (instead of
peaceful preaching) the Taliban are doing most loathsome and disastrous disservice
to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Besides they are reinforcing the
global perception that Muslims were terrorists and barbarians. If there is not
an iota of Islamic mercy, compassion or forbearance among the votaries and
practitioners of Islam then their beliefs are not worth a dime.

There is a dire need to inculcate a
sentiment of broadmindedness and to raise the level of awareness among the Muslim
societies. It is utterly imperative to educate them that their religion exhorts
to keep pace with the advancing times through innovation (Ijtehad) and reorienting
and reinterpreting the Islamic laws (not fundamental beliefs) to conform with
the changing socio-cultural patterns of the modern times.

The blind piggy-bagging of the narrow
minded religious preachers and confiding in the clerics with half-baked knowledge
must be discarded. The enlightened, liberal and educated people with no bigotry,
bias and outdated strait jackets should come forward and harness the minds and
visions of the Muslim populations to take them out of the moulds of obscurantism
and conceptual backwardness.

It is a monumental challenge for
the religio-political leaders, for the visionaries, scholars, intellectuals, educationists,
and media to work together for a civil society in order to bury and eliminate
such aberrations and monstrosities that bedevil most of the Muslim societies.

And one would pray and beseech the sustainer
of this world who gives life and takes it away to redeem little Malala Yousafzai
out of her trauma and awaken her from her deep slumber. If it is a miracle, let
it happen.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

My assessment is that the next government, following 2013 general
elections, would also be formed by the PPP in tandem with its present coalition
allies. I base my reckoning upon the peculiar political culture of Pakistan and
various compelling and inescapable factors that would bar other parties to be
able to muster enough majority to come into power.

My studied argument is that the slots for the national or
provincial assemblies are mostly traditional. These are monopolized mostly by
feudal, big land lords, Sardars( tribal chiefs) , Khans( Pashto speaking
notables), Pirs( spiritual or holy figures), clans( brotherhoods based on caste
or ethnic consideration)or on family
basis( like Chaudhris of Gujrat).

Then religious parties and sectarian conglomerations also partake
some seats. No party can snatch a single seat from MQM in those constituencies of
two major cities of Karachi and Hyderabad where it is solidly entrenched.

The ANP and partly JUI have their firm hold in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province (formerly NWFP). The ANP as the regional party always bags its traditional
national and provincial assembly’s seats with hands down. The red shirt
instinct never recedes or fades in the psyche of the Pathans loyal to the
philosophy of Bacha Khan and his son Khan Abdul Wali Khan.

The religious outfits and groups are quite influential in
certain areas of Pakistan and their victories in those regions are guaranteed.
For instance JUI always wins certain traditional seats in Dear Ghazi Khan, Dera
Ismail Khan, Mianwali and Baluchistan. Jamaat-i-Islami captures a few seats in
Punjab and Karachi.

The devotees of Pir Pagara cast their votes in favor of those
candidates that the spiritual chief recommends or favors. Same is the case with
other shrine custodians and saints. PML ((Q) would also take its share of seats
that it is destined to win. The mainstream parties: PPP and PML (N), as usual,
will have the first and runner positions respectively.

The Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaf (PTI) is relatively a new
entrant into the demarcated political turf of Pakistan. Its leader is an
acknowledged honest and upright person with strict moral codes and ethical
standards to believe and follow. But that quality or trait is not enough for political
point scoring, browbeating the rivals and taking legislative lead in Pakistan.

Imran Khan is a vibrant revolutionary and a passionate
patriot but he is not a rabble-rouser as ZA Bhutto was who with his oration
would sway and enchant the public rallies and meetings. A reticent, less
raucous and a leader with diminished rhetorical skill may be a hero but would
not excel his counterparts having long background in the political arena.

It would be utterly difficult for nascent party like PTI to
defeat the traditional political parties in Pakistan and come out with a clear-cut
victory to propel and advance its revolutionary agenda aimed at transforming
the destiny of Pakistan and its inhabitants. It would be nothing short of a miracle
and an unusual and extraordinary event if PTI emerges as a party with a count of
majority seats to form the government either at the center or in any province.

PTI”s bank vote is limited and confined to zealous and
motivated lot of youth, college students, or disgruntled Pakistanis who may be
intellectually, academically or socially on a very high pedestal. But their
number is not as vast as to vote the PTI into power. The agitations and
uproarious protests and violent processions by the sentimental and emotional
youngsters and educated or conscientious citizens may look impressive. But such
street outpourings have never brought the Jamaat-I-Islami or the religious parties
in power despite their being past masters in such agitational antics to
mobilize the people and bring them to the streets.

There can be a possibility for
the PTI to win some seats in Punjab both for the provincial as well as the
federal legislature. That is if somehow both the PML (N) and PTI can join hands
to contests elections in Punjab by sharing seats and supporting each other.
With that arrangement, the plan and projection of the PPP to replace PMNL’s
government in Punjab, after the 2013 elections can be thwarted. But PTI chief Imran Khan has ruled out such a
possibility by announcing that that PTI will not form an electoral alliance
either with JI or PMNL.

Let us now consider the post
elections scenario for the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party).When the PPP chairman
claims that PPP is going to take over Punjab also, it connotes and indicates
that there must be some solid ground for a such a statement. He is not talking
in the air or without some self-assured confidence. Now the question as to how
the PPP can stage a return to power can be answered by taking various cogent
and compelling factors into consideration.

First of all like other parties,
PPP will retake and win its seats with an insignificant number to be lost.
There is a probability that it gains more seats than what it obtained in 2008
elections. The strong indicator and plausible argument to support this contention
can be found in the victory of Abdul Qadir Gilani. He won over his rival Mr.
Bosan an equallyheavy weight in the
by-poll for the National Assembly’s seat NA-151 (Multan-IV), vacated by his
father the former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani after being disqualified by
the Supreme Court.

Despite a plethora of charges ranging
from corruption to nepotism to inefficiency and incompetence, he won that seat.
Same yardstick can be applied to other traditional seats that are unassailable
or cannot be grabbed by other parties in the prevailing socio-cultural milieu
of Pakistan.

As such the electoral strength of
all the parties, by and large, would remain the same with minor alterations.
The PPP would take maximum number of seats followed by the PMLN. The present
coalition partners of PPP with their ensured quota of reclaimed seats would
again join the majority party at the center and in provinces where possible.

Thus the existing paradigm of
power sharing would remain intact in the new government. The same rigmarole
with the Supreme Court would remain in play. The stringent accountability, rule
of law, coveted dream of justice, removal of poverty, reinventing Pakistan and
rebuilding its institutions would remain elusive for another five years.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The answer is emphatic ‘No”. What
the watchers marveled was that why president Obama a fiery speaker and an
expert in the art of debating chose to be shy and unresponsive to the overblown
arguments of his Republican rival. That unexpected change in an otherwise vocal
and eloquent Obama's posture was a sheer disappointment for countless of his
fans. But there could be a method in his studied oblivion and avoidance of stern
retort that he could have easily whipped up.

Speculatively, he wanted Romney to
dish out any amount of claims with a tinge of falsehood and distortions. He
might have left it for the people to judge how ill-informed, deceptive and
evasive his opponent was with regard to the grave and monumental national
issues.

It would not be difficult for the perceptive
citizens to figure out that Romney was making false and frivolous pledges that
were simply unattainable. He was trying to vouch even those claims that were
primarily on the agenda of the Democratic Party.

He made such catchy and rosy claims
as to save 5 trillion dollars and tax cuts for the middle class and offer
another version of Medicare that he tried to argue was better than that of the
Democrats. In fact that five trillion would go to the rich robber barons
because of low taxation on them.

In an inane rhetoric that rang
hollow, he was trying to pamper the armed forces by offering a 2 trillion dollar
trough which the discerning observers know was the token or down money for
starting the war against Iran. He pledged to make the armed forces stronger. But
the nagging question is: for what war that posed a danger to America? The irony
is that the military has not even asked for that money.

Is he not aware that since WWII
America has been involved in distant wars every single day and without any
respite. These wars had remained inconclusive and counterproductive with regard
to realizing the American dream of lording over new world order under its
aegis.

The Korean War divided that nation
into two hostile parts. The Vietnam War not only divided that small land into
two ideological adversaries but culminated into a hasty and ignominious
withdrawal from that country.

The Iraq war has been a lingering trauma
and a bleeding sore for the Iraqi people. It cost American tax payers a mind
boggling trillion dollars or more. At the end of the day the civil and
sectarian strife has returned to that bedeviled country. The Afghanistan war
can continue till eternity without any outcome in favor of the occupation
forces.

So if Romney wants to engage Iran
in another military conflict then he seems to be grossly detached with the
history of America wars after the Second World War. Or he is simply playing
with American people by exploiting the patriotism card that has been a favorable
pastime of the successive Republican dispensations all these decades.

Or he is trying to curry favor with
Israel to win the support of the unassailable Jewish lobbies within America for
winning elections. Or else he wanted to perpetuate the clash of civilizations doctrine
to attack and demolish another country that rivals Israel.

Despite a sluggish and low key
display by Obama, the American people do not want to believe in the claims that
Mitt Romney was blurring out. The people know a pervasive mess and chaos what
the 8 years of Republican administration under a hawkish ultra-right Evangelist
president Bush has landed this country into.

They also know that four years of
Obama’s presidency have been like an oasis in a sizzling desert or a coveted spell
of rainfall after a long phase of stifling drought and suffocating stagnation.
All the calamities that befell America in recent times can be solely attributed
to that era of G. W. Bush that ravished this country with uncalled-for jingoism
and mindless saber-rattling in the distant lands either to cheer the radical Christian
lobbies within America or to cajole and pacify Israel.

In his first presidential debate
with Republican contender Mitt Romney, President Obama was dull, in low key and
docile. He should have adopted an aggressive, stunning and attacking posture. By
his lack luster response he has surely disappointed his well wishers, his
enthusiastic supporters and his party members. From the start he appeared to be
incoherent and missing the spicy and the hard hitting punch to rebut and disarm
his opponent who in general reckoning was rated to be no match to an eloquent
Obama.

It was not the Barrack Obama that
we have seen all these four years disarming and dominating his interlocutors
and political rivals in debates, eloquence or proffering the data and
statistics that Romney did robustly and confidently.

He had been on the defensive to the
extent that he ignored to debunk Romney for his erroneous and falsifying facts about
such paramount issues as taxation, medicare and creation of jobs. He did not,
even in passing, mention or criticize the offshore accounts of Mitt Romney, his
Bain scandal, his tax evasion or less payment of taxes.

He forgot to draw a comparison
between his four years’ brilliant presidency with the eight years dismal and
ruinous performance of the Republican administration under G.W. Bush that
wrought disastrous effects on the American economy as a result of which this
country slipped under a staggering debt of 16 trillion dollars.

He did not outline his
administration’s sterling achievements in rebuilding America from ashes,
reinvigorating its battered economy, reviving the manufacturing sector
revitalizing the debilitated auto industry and enlivening the sinking banking
and financial systems.

He could explain his astounding Medicare
plan that in effect is a boon for the poor, for the less privileged and those
Americans with chronic diseases. He did not argue and emphasize his stupendous
job creation record that was nothing short of an historic achievement given the
fragile and ruined economy that he was handed over by his successor.

He mutely mentioned the recall of
American forces from Afghanistan and Iraq that has not only saved billions of
dollars but would be instrumental in sparing collateral human loss. Thousands
of American troops have been killed or maimed in these futile wars besides
putting an enormous strain and burden on the American economy.

He should have enumerated his
phenomenal reforms benefiting the veterans and their families, legalizing the young
immigrants, helping the students burdened with heavy loans, buoying up the housing
sector, and eliminating many of the American enemies from among such bands as al-Qaida
and others. The America’s prominent role in making the Arab spring succeed and
democratic governments to be established in place of tyrants was also not taken
up by president Obama.

How could he afford to skip all
these glittering hallmarks of his regime that he achieved despite the glaring
fact that when he assumed the presidency America was like a ship wrecked in stormy
ocean of problems making this wonderful country as the most indebted nation?

As to why he was complacent and in
dismissive mood can be one of the mysterious riddles hard to be untangled by
his admirers and even by the antagonists. As to how his performance is going to
be in the coming debates is a wistful speculation. One would wonder if it would
be an assertive, lashing and robust Obama coming back or the same dispirited,
submissive and fatigued Obama.

Would he in the next debates on
which hinges his re-election, he would focus on recounting his accomplishments and highlight the glaring flaws,
hypocrisy and propensity of the Republicans to benefit the special interest
groups and big tycoons at the cost of the middle class, indigent sections and
low income Americans? Let us wait and see.

About Me

Columnist/Analyst/ Former Diplomat.
After obtaining my master’s degrees in Urdu and English literature from Punjab University, I started my career by teaching in a college. Thereafter, I had a stint in the diplomatic service of Pakistan. Finally I landed in journalism, an occupation that I am wedded to for over 20 years now.
I am a strong believer in a civil society and staunch opponent of exploitation in all forms.